Something was wrong

In the last week of September I wasn’t feeling too well – nothing I could pinpoint. A bit lethargic. On the Friday I wasn’t up to driving to visit our friends in Hanbury, so Row did that. It was Malcolm’s big birthday on Saturday and we went out for an Indian meal – I didn’t have much of an appetite. During the night I had to go to the loo and also was a bit sick. The next day was the annual get together in honour of Row’s dad – who would have been 99. Again, I didn’t have much of an appetite. Nothing happening on the loo front. On the Monday, Malcolm and I played golf – but now my bowels/bladder area was sore. Nothing on the loo front, so when we got home I started taking Movicol and booked an appointment with the doctor.

Next morning (3^rd October) the Movicol worked so I cancelled the doctor’s appointment as I now felt better. However, next day, the pains returned and it was difficult playing golf with Bill at Luton Hoo.

I was due a routine, 6-monthly blood test (because I’m on Thyroid deficiency and High Blood Pressure tablets), so thought I’d wait for those results before taking any action, This happened on 19^th – and as the results showed high Glucose, the doctor sent me for a Glucose Tolerance Test on 27^th October – I chose Lister. This test involves fasting the night before then, before 9am a pin-prick blood sample is taken. You then drink 75g of glucose in 75ml of water. Exactly 2 hours later a blood sample is taken.

No diabetes: First test, under 6.0 mmol/L – Second test under 7.8 mmol/L
Pre-diabetes: First test between 6.0 and 7.0 – Second test between 7.9 and 11.0 mmol/L
Diabetes: First test over 7.0 – Second test over 11.0 mmol/L

My results?

6 months ago 6.1 mmol/L
19^th Oct. 6.7mmol/L
Glucose tolerance test 12.7 mmol/L

So there it is. Type 2 Diabetes. Hopefully. ?

During October I had a fever on three nights – the first was so bad all of the bedding needed changing and the mattress needed drying out. On 29^th October, the day before the third, I was soooo cold that I was shivering almost uncontrollably and a variety of places were painful, including the urinary tract and the loo output was very odd. So, on the 30^th I got up and went for an emergency appointment at the doctors. It was during this appointment that Dr Hollington told me I had diabetes. Just like that. I described my symptoms over the preceding month and as a precautionary measure he prescribed antibiotics.

We made a follow up appointment on 6^th November (yesterday). During the week almost all abdominal issues had gone, so we moved on to talk about the diabetes.

I’ve now got an appointment with the diabetes nurse on 20^th Nov and Row and I have to see the dietitian but not until 14^th December.  I will be having an HbA1C test (from this, the 3 month average blood sugar can be determined – see below) and a CT scan of the pancreas to see if this is where the underlying problem exists.

The more glucose in the blood, the more haemoglobin A1C or HbA1C will be present in the blood. Red cells live for 8 - 12 weeks before they are replaced. By measuring the HbA1C it can tell you how high your blood glucose has been on average over the last 8-12 weeks.